Coco puffs for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
That’s the hope of serial restaurateur Peter Kim when he opens a second Liliha Bakery on Oahu in May at the former Sam Choy’s Breakfast Lunch & Crab restaurant on Nimitz Highway.
Kim is duplicating the iconic Liliha Bakery concept as he moves into downtown Honolulu and will expand the restaurant side of the business, adding seven times the number of seats to his dining room.
"There’s a lot of traffic and it’s centrally located. It’s a highly visible location so we feel very good about it," said Kim, founder of Yummy Restaurant Group, who has searched for a site for expansion since buying the 1950 bakery at 515 N. Kuakini St. in 2008. "It’s not easy to find a Liliha Bakery location because it takes such a large footprint and parking is crucial for our business. When the space becomes available, either you jump on it or that location will be gone for another 10 to 20 years. It’s a time of opportunity."
Sam Choy’s closed in March after 15 years when its parent company, Good Eats USA Inc., decided not to renew its lease.
Kim plans to hire 70 employees for the new restaurant that will have 165 seats. The original bakery has 64 employees and only 23 seats. Kim said the new place will take advantage of more efficient bakery equipment that will allow him to run the restaurant with fewer employees per seat.
The new restaurant will bake everything in house to preserve the quality of the popular $1.35 coco puffs, ensamadas (also spelled ensaimadas) and cakes, Kim said.
"Obviously the restaurant side will have more seats so we’ll be able to have more diners at the new location. We’ll have seating capacity. At (the existing) Liliha Bakery our capacity is nonstop."
It will cater more to the business crowd, with Kim’s primary goal to serve locals, though he believes tourists will follow. He also plans to expand his dinner menu, with prime rib and other dishes in addition to the current menu of hamburger steaks, beef curry and other local plates.
He hasn’t decided whether the Nimitz location will open 24 hours a day, six days a week like the existing bakery, which is closed only on Mondays.
"This is a restaurant built with retail in mind rather than wholesale," Kim said, adding that he plans to remodel the space starting in January. He would not disclose investment costs or projected revenue.
He originally wanted to open in Pearl City, but could not find a suitable spot for the bakery, which sells between 4,800 and 7,200 coco puffs daily. The site of a third location is "a mystery," though he is still searching for space in Pearl City or in West Oahu.
"The site is definitely well located. It’s better than the Liliha location," Mike Hamasu, director of consulting and research at Colliers International, said of the Nimitz site.
"It’s closer to downtown and probably his target market of consumers. With the high visibility at this new location he’s likely to garner increased sales from the large employment base downtown. Similar to the long-term success that Sam Choy had at this site, the hope is that the success carries on to the Liliha Bakery."
Kim owns 25 restaurants and is affiliated with 27 more owned by family members. His eateries include Yummy Korean BBQ, Lahaina Chicken Co., Mama’s Spaghetti House, Cheeseburger Factory, Steak & Fish Co., a KFC and a Subway.
In May, Kim opened the Signature Prime Steak & Seafood restaurant at the top of the Ala Moana Hotel.
